The present invention relates generally to data networks. More particularly, the present invention relates to data network address resolution using user defined labels.
The Internet, and more particularly the World Wide Web (WWW), has been growing at a tremendous rate. As is well known, WWW network address locations are identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). For example, the URL for the home page of ABC Co. may illustratively be www.abc. As users navigate the WWW, commonly called browsing, they come across sites of interest which they may want to return to at a later time. Such sites are sometimes referred to as favorites. A technique known as bookmarking allows a user to save the URLs of favorite sites in the user""s browser. At a later time the user may access his/her bookmarks to return to a favorite site. Current browsers also allow a user to associate a label, which is easier to remember than the full URL, with bookmarked URLs. Thus, for example, a user may assign the label ABC to the bookmarked URL www.abc.com. Current browsers also allow users to organize bookmarks in a hierarchical manner using folders.
While it is known to share bookmarks via electronic mail or via a centrally stored database of bookmarks, the current bookmark management techniques fail to provide the advantages of the present invention.
The present invention provides an improved method for resolving labels into network addresses. In accordance with the invention, labels are resolved into network addresses by accessing so-called address-tables in accordance with a user defined hierarchical search preference. This hierarchical searching, combined with the ability to access the address-tables of other users, provides many advantages over the existing network bookmarking techniques.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, each user maintains an address-table which stores user defined labels and associated network addresses. Each user also maintains a search-table which defines the address-tables to be searched along with a search order, for use when the user requests a label resolution. The address-tables to be searched may include address-tables of entities other than the user who is requesting the label resolution, provided that the other entities grant the user access to their address-tables. Upon initiation of a label resolution, the address-tables identified in the user""s search-table are accessed in the specified order. The associated network address from the first accessed address-table which contains the label will be used for address resolution. The user requesting address resolution may optionally modify the search order for particular label resolutions by providing special search commands along with the label to be resolved.
In one embodiment, the network addresses are WWW network addresses, and label resolution takes place in a network server which is accessible by a plurality of users executing WWW browsers on remote computers. Upon label resolution, the server returns a redirect command to a user""s browser which results in the browser being redirected to the WWW network address associated with the label. In another embodiment, the network addresses are electronic mail addresses, and upon label resolution, the server returns a redirect command which causes the user""s browser to open a mail application with a message addressed to the electronic mail address associated with the label.
The present invention provides many advantages over the existing network bookmarking techniques. For example, the user definable hierarchical search aspect of the invention allows multiple users to have the same labels associated with different network addresses. If a user requests a label resolution for a label which occurs in multiple address-tables in the user""s search-table, the label will be resolved into the network address associated with the label in the address-table which the user has given the highest priority (i.e., the address-table which is searched earliest in the user""s specified search order). An additional advantage results from the sharing aspects of the. invention. A network address associated with a label may be updated in one particular user""s address-table, and all user""s who share access to that particular user""s address-table get the benefit of the update without having to make any changes to their tables.
These and other advantages of the invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reference to the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.